One Toronto restaurant has totally gone to the dogs, as they’ve introduced an entire menu just for your furry friends; it’ll cost more than just a couple of bones though.
If dogs are man’s best friend, they deserve to eat just like humans do, right?
While human-grade dog foods from the likes of Open Farm and The Honest Kitchen are all the rage these days among doting owners, Danforth’s Sarang Kitchen is taking it one step further.
Making the news Insta-official on Sunday, Feb. 2, the Korean restaurant, whose original location is in Bloorcourt, dropped their brand-new pup-friendly menu, which features three entrees, which they call “Noms,” and two liquid-based offerings, called “Slurps,” that are now available at their sister location on Danforth.
For Noms, your pooch can dine on the “Sarang Barkday Cake,” ($12) a rendition of a birthday cake made from chicken breast, beet powder and gold flakes, “Fried Chimken Platter,” which includes chicken thigh, sweet potato, yak chews and beef liver for $14, or — the piece de resistance — a $19 Korean BBQ platter.
The Korean Bark-B-Q set includes ribeye, sweet potato salad, carrot with greek yogurt dressing, corn cheese, egg and rice. Any dogs who get treated to that one must be some seriously good boys (and girls) indeed.
In terms of Slurps, your pets can tuck into the “Pawgarita ($5),” made from beef liver and whipped cream, or the $3 “Puppucino,” which includes bone broth, carrot and beef liver with a yak chew rim.
For Sarang Kitchen founder, Jennifer Low, the new menu holds a greater purpose than simply pampering your pets.
“One of the biggest reasons to have a pet-friendly location with a specially curated paw menu is to allow our neurodivergent customers bring their emotional support animals along to dine in with us,” she tells blogTO.
While some of the prices on the menu may give you pause — or, paws, perhaps I should say, — Jennifer tells blogTO that the dishes on offer have been specially formulated not only to include quality ingredients, but be genuinely tasty for your own furbabies, too.
In fact, she’s enlisted her own dog, Dusty, to be the quality control manager of the whole experiment.
“He’s a picky pup so if he likes them, we know that other pups would love them too,” Jennifer says.
If the issue of cleanliness at the dog-friendly restaurant is a concern for you, Jennifer tells blogTO that they take extra care to keep things spick and span between each dog’s stay — including disinfectant sprays and lint rollers.
The paw menu is currently only available at Sarang’s Danforth location, which is larger and features a more spatious patio than the Bloorcourt location, allowing a more comfortable dining experience both for the pets and their owners and for those less keen on dining among canines.
“We understand that not everyone is comfortable dining beside a pet so we usually reserve tables near the entrance or in a corner for tables with pets, and we always check with the customers nearby to make sure they are comfortable with pets,” Jennifer tells blogTO.
Who knows, this might just spark a new trend of restaurants in the city that cater towards both animals and their humans.
“I hope more spaces will be willing to be more pet-friendly so that our pets can join us for more adventures,” Jennifer tells blogTO.
Sarang Kitchen is located at 774 Danforth Avenue, and the Paw Menu is available by reservation, which can be made via email to danforth@sarangkitchen.ca.
